Ainay, Presqu'île (2e)

Ainay is the genteel southern stretch of the Presqu'île, gathered around its Romanesque abbey-church and a grid of quiet, bourgeois streets between Bellecour and Perrache. The tone is conservative and well-heeled, and the cooking matches it: this is bouchon country in its most authentic form. Café Comptoir Abel has been serving since the eighteenth century and remains one of the city's defining traditional rooms, while Le Poêlon d'Or and Le Vivarais keep the canon of quenelle, gratin and andouillette alive without irony or apology. Come hungry, eat the old dishes properly, and understand why Lyon calls itself the capital of gastronomy.